THE ANGEL OF ANNUNCIATION HOW DID THE ARCH ANGEL GABRIEL REALLY GREETED MARY? WAS IT "HAIL FULL OF GRACE"? OR "HAIL O HIGHLY FAVORED ONE"?

(Mariology 101)

Below are three versions of Luke 1:28. The first is taken from the New Catholic Edition which uses translation from the Douay version coming from the Latin Vulgate. The next two are of the King James Version and the American Standard Version. From my understanding, the first translation is not a transliteration, yet " as opposed to saying "Hail, highly favored one."

There are those (anti_Catholics) that will claim that the Catholic Church uses the Latin vulgate translation of the original Greek in order to more fully support the Church's teaching on our Blessed Mother.

How does a Catholic share about the difference in translations, knowing that the newer translations are closer to a transliteration of the Greek, than the Douay which is a translation of the Latin? In other words, which translation is closest to the 'correct' translation?

28And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Douay Rheims

28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”[c] KJV

28 And he came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee. American Standard Version

The Marian doctrines are, for anti-Catholics, among the most annoying of the doctrines most people identify as peculiarly Catholic. Anti-Catholics disapprove of any talk about Mary as the Mother of God, as the Mediatrix, as the Mother of the Church. In this tract we'll examine briefly two Marian doctrines that fundamentalist writers frequently complain about, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption.

At the Annunciation. Gabriel greeted Mary by saying, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28). The phrase "full of grace" is a translation of the Greek kecharitomene. This word actually represents the proper name of the person being addressed by the angel, and it must on that account express a characteristic quality of Mary. What's more, the traditional translation, "full of grace," is more accurate than the one found in many recent versions of the New Testament, which give something along the lines of "highly favored daughter." True, Mary was a highly favored daughter of God, but the Greek implies more than that.

The newer translations leave out something the Greek conveys, something the older English versions convey, which is that this grace (and the core of the word kecharitomene is charis, after all) is at once permanent and of a singular kind. The Greek indicates a perfection of grace. A perfection must be perfect not only intensively, but extensively. The grace Mary enjoyed must not only have been as "full" or strong or complete as possible at any given time, but it must have extended over the whole of her life, from conception.

That is, she must have been in a state of sanctifying grace from the first moment of her existence to have been called "full of grace." If she was merely "highly favored," in the normal connotation of those words, her status would have been indistinguishable from that of some other women in the Bible, such as Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, or Sarah, the wife of Abraham, or Anna, the mother of Samuel—all of whom, by the way, were long childless and were "highly favored" because God acceded to their pleas to bear children.

GRATIA PLENA ' FULL OF GRACE"

The angel’s Ave should mean that we are to dispose ourselves everytime we pray. What a difference between, as we say, praying and praying by making ourselves first, aware of the one to whom and with whom we are praying. What an important, not recommendation, injunction. Never start your prayers before placing yourself in the presence of the one to whom and with whom you are going to pray. In God’s presence always, here, in the presence of God’s mother. So far the opening words of the angelic salutation.

Gratia Plena, ‘Full of Grace,’ How these inspired words of the angel to our Lady have been weakened, mutilated, and destroyed( by anti-Catholics). The angels called Mary not only ‘highly favored daughter, or ‘blessed one’. No. The angel told Mary that she was full of grace. How carefully we have to be, I have to say it, on what bible we use, on what scriptures we meditate on to make sure that we have the authentic words inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Our lady not only was, she is full of grace. She is full of grace because she was, what shall we say, filled with sanctifying grace from the first moment of her human existence, from the moment of what we call, her immaculate conception. Which in theological language means, ‘grace filled conception’.

She was full of grace because she was chosen to be the mother of the Author of grace. No wonder we speak of our Lady as the mother of Divine grace. Mary is full of grace because she is the most pleasing to God of all His creatures, of either angelic or human persons. Mary’s divine Son was not a human person, He was a divine person who assumed a human nature.

Mary is more pleasing to God that any human person and above all the angelic persons of the heavenly host. She if full of grace because she is the spiritual mother of the human race. Christ redeemed the world by His passion. Mary cooperated in the redemption of the world by her compassion. Mary is full of grace because she is the mediatrix of divine grace.

Three prepositions that are at the heart of our Catholic faith: from, through, and to. All grace comes from Christ. Grace comes through Mary. And thanks to Jesus and Mary, grace comes to us.

We are not finished. Mary is full of grace because she is the most pleasing and therefore the most perfect intercessor to God for obtaining grace for us. Hear it, anyone, angels or human beings, are only as powerful an intercessor with God as that angelic or human person is pleasing to God. Holiness is the condition for intercession. The greater the holiness, the more powerful the intercessor. - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

source:ewtn/karlkeating/catholic.org/ Fr. John A. Hardon,

S.J./realpresence.org

photo:Gabriel the angel of annunciation Daniel 8:15 describes Gabriel as appearing in the "likeness of man" and in Daniel 9:21 he is referred to as "the man Gabriel."